Sony Reader PRS-500 gets launch date, price

We told you it wasn't too far off from release this morning when we showed you our hands-on shots of the device, and now Sony has made good on our promise by finally giving us a price and launch date for their Sony Reader PRS-500. Sony is bringing this one in "on or before" October 31st for $350, and is currently accepting pre-orders at their online store. It sure took them long enough, but we're glad they didn't slip on that $350 pricepoint. As for specs -- in case you haven't managed to pick them up by now -- the E Ink unit sports a 6-inch display with 170 pixels per inch of 4-level grayscale action. There's also 7,500 page turns of battery life, and while we're not quite sure we're ready to get locked into Sony's latest proprietary DRM in the form of BBeB, we're sure we can find plenty of use for unit between the other document formats supported and the repeated self-congratulating viewings of our own RSS feeds.

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[yonatron @ Sep 26th 2006 3:57PM]

This thing sounds sweet. I hope it's successful enough to come down significantly in price in the next year or so. And I'd actually consider bending, er, rolling over for a new DRM format if hell froze over and they made their store/management software Mac-compatible.

[omellet @ Sep 26th 2006 3:58PM]

I'm excited about e-ink readers, but I want to know a few things before I buy one:

1) Will I be able to buy an ebook from Amazon, B&N, etc, and have it work on one device? I know Amazon is working on their own reader, so this seems unlikely. This is probably the single biggest factor that will determine ebook success or failure. How many cd players would have been sold if you could only play Tower Records-bought cds on a Tower-branded cd player?

2) Sharing. I want to be able to loan a book to a friend (and if this means I have to relinquish my DRM license until my friend "gives" it back, so be it). This is important, but not as important as #1.

I thought I had more questions, but these are the only ones I can remember.

[Bogey @ Sep 26th 2006 4:07PM]

I still don't get it. $350 for an eBook reader? Cost for a trip to the local public library? $0. Now even if you forget the library trip... What's the major type of books that will be available? Novels? Technical books? If you're into buying technical books - AND there's a discount over buying the eBook version over the printed version, sure, I can see this thing paying itself off. BUT answer me this... the book I got from the library or purchased, will still "work" in 5 years (yes, I know the contents may be outdated - but not if it's a novel). What's the chances that your eBook will still be working in 6 years?

I think eBooks of any type have got a long way to go before they are universally accepted by the public. A long way.

[jollyllama @ Sep 26th 2006 4:08PM]

Call me when this is $100.

[grimace @ Sep 26th 2006 4:11PM]

i'd be slightly interested in this, except the price still seems waaaay too high, i'm not a HUGE reader, but now that i've got a long commute on the train to the city i read about a book every 7-10 days. to me it'd be much easier to just d/l it than go out to the bookstore. i only buy paperbacks so it's not like i'd be interested in showing off my collection of books.

and yeah i'd like to see what type of prices the books would cost cuz if it's not significant savings either than there's really no point, i'd rather lug a book around than worry about cracking the screen of this in my backpack or something.

[Uy Tran @ Sep 26th 2006 4:13PM]

Okay, do I pay $350 for this nifty e-book reader, or do I go online, find my information (i.e. all English classic literature can be found under public domain) and print stuff out at my office for free?

I just can't see the companies that sell the most expensive books (science textbooks, I'm looking at you) significantly discounting an e-book version enough for this thing to be worthwhile. Oh well, it's not like there are warez pdfs of books available I can just print out. Oh wait...

[Gary @ Sep 26th 2006 4:15PM]

As I posted in the previous post on this reader, for me to buy one the BBeB format would need to be open to allow convertors from other formats to be written.

1) I won't purchase ebooks in a proprietary format unless there is a way to convert them to an open format for archiving.

2) However, an equally big concern is if Sony are the only company selling BBeB books, then should they choose to close the store, the device is no longer quite as useful. If however other ebook retailers can sell ebooks in BBeB format, it's not as bad a situation. Although 1 would then be a concern, since when the next new all singing and dancing format comes out, and retailers switch to it, all these sony BBeB capable devices again become less useful.

An open format with a convertor to move to BBeB format is the only way forward imo.

music.podshow.com and bean books (http://www.baen.com/) show that people will buy unprotected music and/or books.

I don't mind DRM per say, I just don't like the current implementations of it. If I could buy a DRM'd book that would work on all future devices, I wouldn't have an issue with it. But sadly, that's not possible unless someone creates a program to strip the DRM to allow you to move your music/books over to whatever format the new hardware requires.

Until we can buy DRM less books, I'll probably stick to the very small ebook collection I have and keep on buying paperbacks which (fire/theft/damage not withstanding/eyesight loss) will still be readable in years to come.

I'd love to have my current library of books in eformat, but not if it means giving up the freedom to use different hardware in the future.

[KerryB @ Sep 26th 2006 6:06PM]

I agree with the concerns over DRM. Much like the situation in music, I'm nervous about the likelihood of losing access to my purchases... these DRM schemes (for all media -- music, movies, books, periodicals, etc) need to somehow be linked to a future proof central registry system that grants me licence to the work in question in perpetuity. Any future DRM can check the registry to see if I'm licenced, and then do whatever it needs to do otherwise.

I'm ok with nominal fees for format upgrades that add something (e.g. author/artist commentary), but fundamentally I should never have to pay twice for the same content.

-k

p.s. I know this is insufferably pedantic, but you meant "per se", not "per say" -- That one's a particular pet peeve for me.

[adi @ Sep 26th 2006 4:21PM]

Glad it didn't slip? This is already on my Too-Pricey list at $350. I'll stick with reading eBooks on my Treo, thanks.

Like others are saying - wake me up when this reaches $100...

[que @ Sep 26th 2006 4:27PM]

is there a backlight on this unit?

[Sockpuppet @ Nov 17th 2006 12:59PM]

It doesn't need a back light due to the technology. Think of it as a fancy etch-a-sketch. The brighter the environment, the better it looks.

[freak1c @ Sep 26th 2006 4:29PM]

I dunno, seems pretty neat. I say this as I consider my small Brooklyn Apt. and overflowing bookshelf. I'm hesitant to buy books now, cuz I can't fit them anywhere!

And I'm bad at libraries. Something about having to 'return' things that's so 1993 Blockbuster-esque to me. All those late fees! And those plastic jackets!

[Jorge @ Sep 26th 2006 4:38PM]

I just ordered it and it says it is going to ship 9/28 and not on or before 10/31.. might be a glitch but maybe they are ready to ship now...

[GioNYC @ Sep 26th 2006 4:42PM]

$350 and all it does is ebook reads? No wifi? No email? No Color Screen?

[Leon Lamle @ Sep 26th 2006 5:01PM]

This seems like a tad bit of a waste if its only greyscale... and for $350 i could buy a MYLO and pop the ebooks i already own on it.

Some other options are:
http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/26/panasonics-words-gear-color-e-book-reader/

[Blue Sam @ Sep 26th 2006 4:55PM]

Someday, there will be paperless book.

[Mike @ Sep 26th 2006 4:59PM]

Way to go Sony! It will probably be another debacle like their Librie.

Proprietary format for a book reader will never give it the mass appeal to be successful.

:-(

[Paul @ Sep 26th 2006 5:19PM]

I dont see much, if any, benefit for this item. Its a cool concept, but I wouldnt pay more than $50 for it for many reasons.

1. If you buy a real book, you can read it once, twice, however many times, put it on a shelf and then come back to it in 10 years and pick it up and read it again no problem. With this device there are several problems, if it breaks, good bye book, if the DRM becomes outdated, good bye book, if you want to upgrade your device, good bye book...

2. A paper back novel ussually costs around $5-$8, for the price of this reader you could buy around 53.8 other books.

3. After paying $350 for this reader, you still have to buy the books. What would be cool is if you could somehow put in the UPC of your book that you own and then download it for free (that would be sweet) but thats right, then the book companies wouldnt make the double profit from me...

4. I like being able to walk along my book shelf, or stand in front of it and look for an old friend to read again, I can look over the titles and see the cover art and be reminded about what the storyline for that book is, this is not really a logical arguement against the reader, but more of a personal opinion.

I do see some benefits to this device however;

1. No need for the current large quantities of bookshelves I now have. My house currently has books stacked in front of books on shelves and books that I dont read often stacked in boxes in closets. In the future a device like this could greatly reduce clutter around a book lovers house

2. Easy to find a book you are looking for, I am a bit disorganized so if you can just search for a title you want to read on the device it would make life much easier.

3. If it is backlit (dunno) it would make reading in the dark/dim light better for your eyes and you wouldnt need to have an extra light on.

Still, as I said, I would not pay $350 for a device like this, if it dropped to $50 I would probably buy it, and i would consider a reasonable price to be circa $100.

I understand it is new technology and the price is bound to drop, but I still say I will wait and see how it develops

[Fuzz @ Sep 26th 2006 5:27PM]

Wait, what? Sony is pushing a new format to go with their hardware?? Never!

Man, why can't they stick with standards like everyone else? They would do so much better.

[Matt @ Sep 26th 2006 5:34PM]

It seems to me that e-book makers as well as various content providers are ignoring a large possible source of income with these things. Up to now, the focus has been entirely on books. However, most people I know read a lot more with magazines and periodicles. What's more, people who purchase books (as opposed to going to the library), usually want to have something tangible that will last and look good on a shelf somewhere.

On the other hand. A reasonably priced e-reader coupled with cheap rss subscription feeds of magazines, newspapers, and other disposeable periodicles that people are already used to paying for could be a big hit.

[KerryB @ Sep 26th 2006 5:57PM]

That's a really good point and I totally agree.

Don't think it'll happen until color comes around to eInk though.

I mean, the New Yorker could probably live without it, as would things like ValueLine which come on print.

But not so much Wired or Time or, well, pretty much every modern periodical.

I'd happily pay for a well designed electronic solution to the magazine situation in my house. A situation that essentially boils down to being inundated with piles and PILES of dead trees that are annoying to recycle and take up space and weigh tonnes.

MacWorld gave me a free e subscription with my computer, but it used a proprietary reader (zineo?) and of course i couldn't move it around. So that never got read once.

[jollyllama @ Sep 26th 2006 6:48PM]

If you put wifi and RSS in this, I'd totally pay $200 for it. Hell, take out the Wi-Fi and make me sync it with my computer's RSS agregator and I'd pay $150. That would be a useful device.

[k @ Sep 26th 2006 5:52PM]

At the risk of feeding this most vacuous of "debates", a few words in response to arguments I've seen not just in this thread, but in every thread about eBook readers since the first day the concept was proposed.

The library is only truly free if your time has no value and you're pretty flexible about what you read. Don't get me wrong, I love the library... I spent so many hours there as a child it was like a second home. But it serves a different purpose from the market for purchased books. Libraries don't (and can't, and shouldn't) stock everything I want, and also frequently stock hardbound books that, while often nice to look at, aren't convenient for reading anywhere outside my bed/easy chair.

Downloading "free" or free books from the internet and printing them at your office is, again, only free if your time has no value and you're also perfectly ok with stealing from your employer (with apologies if it's part of your job to read The Unbearable Lightness of Being and they won't buy you a $6 paperback copy, which is cheaper than the printout). You also have to be ok with reading off of 8.5x11 sheets that you, what, hole punch? Stick in a binder? Awesome... that's every bit as convenient as an ebook reader, definitely.

I'm pretty much certain at this point that people asking about a backlight are purely trolling since anybody who's bothered to read anything about these devices should know the ONE PERTINENT feature which is that they're OPAQUE. Reflective. Not transmissive. Do you backlight books? Sheets of printed out text? Right.


And for all of you who want it to do email, surf the web, chat, etc, I have a device for you too. It's called a laptop. Or a UMPC, lately. By all means, if a device whose only job is to display text *really* well for the purpose of *reading* doesn't suit you, that's understandable, but endlessly pointing out that it doesn't do something that is completely outside it's domain is ridiculous. Not every piece of hardware needs to serve all functions.

The major features the thing could use aren't email and web access but a touch sensitve screen and stylus (and handwriting recognition, ideally, even Palm Grafitti style) so I can make annotations, bookmarks, highlights, etc.

Search is a biggie as well, and something that seems like it'd be easy to implement, but does require an input mode of some sort. See above.

A built in dictionary is a valid request i've heard before, especially one which can be supplemented with dicts for other languages (then again, electronic dicts like those popular in Japan, Korea, etc are $350 and up).

Color would be super, but the tech doesn't exist yet for eInk; I'd like my car to drive itself too, but not having that feature isn't gonna keep me from getting a car.

Now, there are valid complaints against this device, not least of which is the price. I understand why it's $350 -- eInk is new and probably a bitch to manufacture right now -- but even a big eBook proponent like me would prefer to pay less. Like, $150, maybe $200.

The second major complaint is that god awful industrial design both in the casing and the interface. Someone in the VAIO unit over at sony did an ok job studying Apple's design concepts... apparently that knowledge didn't transfer to the Reader unit. It's ugly and has too many damn buttons, considering it's got a simple task to do.

I've probably overdone it here, but it's frustrating to see the same comments over and over and over. A little analysis goes a long way.

[JM @ Sep 28th 2006 6:23PM]

totally agree. Also, to people complaining about the DRM, I believe it also supports PDF.

I have an irex iliad*, and despite its flaws, I LOVE it. Once these things come down in price and the features improve, eInk devices will be literally everywhere.


*No, I'm not a millionaire, or a Washington fatcat. I somehow managed to get *work* to buy me this overpriced^H^H^H^Hfabulous $850 device.

[Marpa47 @ Aug 2nd 2007 2:12AM]

sorry to hear that about your local library setup. New York Public library online has a tremendous amount of audio book, e-book and even video for free download with a library card and password. not to mention the free e-books via IPL.org, prodject gutenberg and even the university of virginia.

[Yoyodyn @ Sep 26th 2006 6:01PM]

My understanding of e-ink is that it does not have a backlight, because it doesn't need one. You shine a light on it, just like a paper book, to read it. Since the battery life was listed as page turns I assume that this one like others does not consume battery while a static page is displayed. I think they need to get the resolution higher to match the letter quality of most standard paperbacks though.

How about a free copy of the e-book with the purchase of the hard cover? Wouldn't that possibly get more money to the publishers since people would be slightly more inclinded to buy the more expensive hard cover. I know I am only buying paperbacks these days.

I can see the day when my bookshelves that are currently packed with paperback books are cleared for only a couple of SD cards.

[Brian Sexton @ Sep 26th 2006 6:15PM]

I too think this sounds very expensive, even if it were offset by content credit (e.g., book vouchers or discount coupons). If the price comes down, though, and a lot of college texts and other scholarly books and essays become available, it could be a nice option for college students who want lighter backpacks. Of course, the same can be said of notebook computers and PDF or other document or book formats.

So says "K": ". . . it's frustrating to see the same comments over and over and over . . ."

Unfortunately, that is the nature of non-threaded discussion; flat systems do not allow easy subject-browsing and this "comments" system (a bit of a practical misnomer since it is used for discussion as well) does not allow per-post subjects anyway, so people are likely to post without reading other "comments" first.

[EdZ @ Sep 26th 2006 6:32PM]

Remmeber, this can also use NO DRM files. You don't have to buy sony's stuff (there's pleanty of free reading material on the net, on project gutenberg, and released under creative commons).

[xie @ Sep 26th 2006 6:38PM]

This thing is much more convenient to read on the toilet.

[Stephen Lang @ Sep 26th 2006 6:58PM]

It looks like these eink readers are finally starting to reach actual viability. I have a ton of stuff on my computer that I would love to be able to read in a more portable, easy-on-the-eyes reader like this. $350 is a reasonable if still somewhat early-adopter price.

I still haven't seen one in person though, which I think is necessary before you can really decide if this eink tech is for you (big enough improvement over various devices with LCD screens.)

[Clark @ Sep 26th 2006 7:22PM]

I'm looking forward to using one of these for reading ebooks from the library. Many libraries now have ebooks in PDF form available for checkout through overdrive.com. Here's a list:
http://www.overdrive.com/LibraryList.asp

[Big B @ Sep 26th 2006 7:45PM]

I think these things are going to crash and burn like a teenager at his first keg party. Talk about coming of age.

[trout-101 @ Sep 26th 2006 8:57PM]

I'm probably going to get it. After reading a few negative comments, it only encouraged me.

Being able to share with friends doesn't realy change much, I'd still have to give the physical book to my friends and hope to see it again.

As for converting to other formats, I haven't found any practical method to turn hard cover books into paperback without buying another copy.

Sony's format may not be future proof but PDF and HTML are solid standards that I don't see going anywhere.

I read alot of books and space is a premium for me living in the big city.

Price would only be the big hurdle, but that's what credit cards are for.

[Michael @ Sep 26th 2006 9:21PM]

Future proof is a big issue, although I think that in some nebulous "future" 10 years down the road, stripping the DRM from these files retroactively will be trivial. The biggest issue for me is support for all the books I want to read NOW. What's the use of this thing when the new book from my favorite author comes out, and is only available for the Amazon reader? That would really piss me off. This is one of those technologies where you can't just "rip" your pre-existing media to work on the new reader. Therefore, the KEY in adoption of this device is going to be "can I seamlessly download practically any book I want to read on it?" If the answer is yes, then even $350 isn't such a bad price, as the cheaper ebooks (compared to print copies) will save me money eventually (I read a TON), and be more convenient than a trip to the bookstore. If it only replaces half or a quarter of the books I read, though, the price must be a lot cheaper.

[William P. @ Sep 26th 2006 11:20PM]

WIll this thing do newspapers? If it did that I would buy it in a heart beat. Being on the subway with paper sucks - an ebook would make it much easier.

I think i'll buy it when WSJ is available...and especially if its wifi capable (so my morning paper is delivered directly to the device)...

[Nutsy @ Sep 27th 2006 5:52AM]

$350 for what is nothing more than a glorifide electronic etchoscetch? Because thats all it is... A dot matrix etchoscetch with very basic computer hardware behind it.

When e-ink was in the development stage the devoplers where all chearing on how cheap the display was to manufacture. But i dont see any of that cheapness here.

$350 is too much for what is a cheap display [dont get me wrong I love e-ink] and a very cut down basic pocket organiser. The type of organiser that would cost under $100 could do more than this.

This thing dossnt even have a touch sensertive screen. At least the ilaid got that one right. No wifi so RSS has to be fed through the USB prolly via there pc software.

But why oh why with hardware that should be relitivly cheap is being set at such a high price is wrong. Nothing more than them being greedy yet again.

E-ink ebook readers will not be a sucsess untill the readers are cheap, have real world functionality such as on demand wifi and built in rss readers and of course open formats.

No one wants to be stuck with a single DRM format that is likly doomed to fail within a couple of years. Face it sony no one likes your DRM. We didnt before and we dont now.

[Jason Sweby @ Sep 27th 2006 7:24AM]

So we know from Sony that it isn't going to be available to us in the UK for some time, I think they're going to see how it does in the States first. But can you see any reason why I can't buy it from the US and have it shipped here?

I checked the specifications and I don't believe it comes with an AC charger, just a USB one, so even the difference in power supplies is now not an issue.

[bender @ Sep 27th 2006 8:20AM]

Gray scale screen? What is this, early nineties? Those crappy green/gray/brown screens used to be okay in portables. These days we have white leds and white screens.
Or color ereaders like the panasonic one announced yesterday.
I hate brown screens.

[Nutsy @ Sep 27th 2006 8:59AM]

This is E-ink not LCD displays...

E-ink is a paper like display. There are come colour prototypes but there harder to manage.

E-ink is none backlit easy on the eyes and extreamly low power concumption.

Perfect ebook stuff.

But as i said before its too exspensive for what it is. And isnt.

[William @ Sep 27th 2006 9:41AM]

The panasonic one looks better.

"Call me when its $100"

[DJones @ Sep 27th 2006 9:42AM]

Got a Sony email today announcing this device. Sells for $349.00, free shipping, $50.00 book credit. Checked the Sony online bookstore and books sell for slightly less than what you'd pay at Brick & Mortar (exception: B&Ms discount bestsellers -- Sony doesn't do this, but should). There's a limited selection of books at this time. For example, not all New York Times fiction/non-fiction bestsellers available. Sony mirrors hardback and paperback pricing. If the book is out in paperback, they price slightly less than paperback cover price. They offer some special bundle pricing and this appears to be a good deal. You can currently buy only from Sony Store because of propriety software. I'm a big fan of this technology, having bought the Apple Newton and one other electronic e-book...they're all now history.

I'll wait this time. I'd consider purchasing if it was under $250, I wasn't locked into buying books only from Sony, I could get periodicals, and it had a search function (which I used often on my other devices). It's clearly a niche product. Hope Sony succeeds.

[Walter @ Sep 27th 2006 6:04PM]

I ordered one yesterday and today received notice that it had shipped.

[John Doe @ Sep 27th 2006 7:13PM]

If this thing could do ereader.com books I'd preorder one right now. As it stands hell no. I have a fairly large collection of ereader books for my Pocket PC.

[aka Wombat @ Sep 28th 2006 11:41AM]

There are barely any fiction titles available as eBooks. go check http://www.mobipocket.com
http://www.ebooks.com

go check it out!

I would buy this thing if even half my books were available...

[gatsbi @ Sep 28th 2006 6:40PM]

I think this is a nice gadget for reading PDF or Managa when the price comes down...Another gadget for me...
Other than that, I would rather use my labtop with text to speach software (with AT&T natural voice, doesn't sounds like a robot) to read the books for me...which is what I'm doing now.

[zechs @ Nov 11th 2007 9:50AM]

I bought the Sony eBook Reader for one and only one reason - so I can read my programming books (most of which are in pdf format).

I was thus surprised when I loaded my pdf files into the ebook reader. I could barely read it even at the maximum zoom level. The unit does not reflow the pdf files!!!

Before buying the Sony ebook reader I used to use my pda to read my books. The screen is 320x240 (too small) but at least I can read the pdf files. I can zoom it to any level I want and the text would reflow.

I was thinking that with the Sony ebook reader (screen size 800x600) the reading experience will even be better. No such luck. What you get is just a bigger screen with tiny (did I say very tiny) font. You can hardly read the pdf files. You can only zoom 1 step and even at that zoom level you still can hardly read the content. The content does not reflow!!!